Japan’s flood survivors begin digging out
Residents of typically safe area shocked by deadly downpour
KURASHIKI, Japan — As rain poured and the creeks and rivers that course through the city of Kurashiki began to rise, Miyuki Komada repeatedly tried to call her 70-year-old mother, who was home sick with a cold.
But Komada, 37, could not get through. And heavy rain Friday drowned out the sound of evacuation sirens. When she and her sister arrived after 9 p.m. they found their mother dozing.
As they drove her out, water was already nearing knee height. Soon after, a nearby levee broke and water surged to shoulder height within a halfhour, Komada said.
“If I hadn’t come, my mother would have stayed in bed,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”
As she searched through mud and standing water for what few valuables could be salvaged from the family home Monday, the risk her mother would have faced was clear. The water line climbed to the second floor of the two-story house, stopping halfway up the windows.
‘It was so quick’
Japanese soldiers patrolled the neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking if everyone was safe from the rains, which produced jarring images of widespread destruction, a reminder that a country known for its orderliness is not immune to the chaos of natural disasters.
The sudden surge of floodwaters in this area of western Japan proved deadly for many. Of the 122 people killed as of Monday afternoon, 21 were here in the Mabi district of Kurashiki, the public broadcaster NHK reported. To the west, Hiroshima prefecture reported 44 dead. An additional 78 people were missing.
Thousands are displaced, too. In Okayama prefecture, which includes Kurashiki, 4,234 people were staying in shelters as of Monday morning, according to the Sanyo Shimbun, a local daily newspaper.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe canceled a trip to Europe and the Middle East set for later this week to respond to the disaster.
Military and rescue service helicopters slowly circled in the blue skies Monday, surveying the damage and searching for missing people. Warm, sunny weather helped ease the immediate threat of more flooding. But water continued to carve across what was once a road in Mabi. Deep sand and a roof that had been deposited across both lanes made passage impossible on anything but foot.
This area is usually considered one of the safest in Japan, sheltered from typhoons and with little history of deadly earthquakes or tsunamis. After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami on Japan’s northeastern coast that killed nearly 16,000 people, some moved to this area seeking safety.
Now even this relatively placid area of one of the world’s most prosperous countries feels perilous to those who witnessed the destruction.
Mieko Tamura, 70, said she had experienced a flood once previously here, in 1976. But the water came only to knee height and she was not worried.
“This time it was so quick,” she said as she cleared debris from the yard of her beauty parlor, where chunks of grass were torn up and a tadpole swam in a puddle.
A loose timber had smashed her front window, and the interior was damp with water and mud. Nothing of value survived.
“Some people around here look like they want to steal stuff,” she said. “I don’t care. They can take anything.”
Business brought to halt
The flooding has punished Japan’s robust industrial sector as well. Mazda suspended production at factories in Yamaguchi and Hiroshima prefectures, while Daihatsu halted operations at plants in four prefectures, NHK reported.
The Asahi Aluminium Industrial Co. plant in Okayama exploded late Friday after workers evacuated during the flooding. Neighbors said they had had no warning that the plant posed such a risk.
Officials from the plant were visiting neighbors Monday to apologize, said Takashi Nakano, a spokesman for Asahi Seiren Co., the parent company of the aluminum plant.
“This is the first time to have such an accident,” he said. “But since we have not conducted site inspection yet, I cannot comment on anything at the moment.”